Author
Arnhem Zoo
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I worked at the Arnhem Zoo from 1975 through 1981. This was facilitated by the zoo director, Anton van Hooff, being my advisor's brother. Together they had established a colony of around 25 chimpanzees on a one hectare (two-acre) island - still the world's largest such colony today.
Every morning, rain or shine, I would cycle to the zoo to spend hours watching chimps. I did little else. Working at my desk, I would keep an ear to the chimps. At the slightest noise, I had my binoculars in hand to follow the spectacle. Over this six-year period, I supervised more than twenty students, who helped out with observations and the collection of thousands of data points.
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Most of the ideas central to Our Inner Ape were formed during this time, such as those relating to power, sex, conflict resolution, empathy, cooperation, and reciprocity. I was directly inspired by the chimps. Perhaps because of my closeness to the apes, I developed an aversion to the simplifications of theoretical biologists who liked to depict us, and by extension all other primates, as nasty and selfish. I saw a much more complex picture, including a variety of genuinely positive tendencies.
In 1977, I received my PhD in Biology at the University of Utrecht.
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